Chance to advance drops; names due this week

May. 21, 2013 - 06:00AM
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Where’s the list?

Check the main page of NavyTimes.com throughout the week for the release of the active-duty and full-time support petty officer advancement names. They will be posted as soon as they become available in an easy-to-search format.

More than 80,000 active-duty and full-time support sailors who passed their Cycle 219 advancement exams in March will find out whether they’ve advanced later this week, though their chance to move up has decreased from last year.

According to quotas data released late Monday by the chief of naval personnel, there are spots for 22,681 active-duty and 573 FTS sailors to advance into paygrades E-4 through E-6.

The overall chance for active-duty sailors to advance in all three paygrades dropped this cycle to 28.94 percent, down from a 33 percent chance last fall. Active-duty quotas are down as well, dropping 3,698 overall. The number of eligible sailors dropped as well, but by only 1,488, which resulted in the slight drop in opportunity.

“This is the result of having a relatively steady state outlook for end strength, and though we saw a slight drop in opportunity across the board, it’s still way above the 10-year average,” said Rear Adm. Tony Kurta, head of manpower plans for the chief of naval personnel.

Kurta said that as long as end strength isn’t cut, sailors can expect advancement to stay in this range for the next few cycles.

The drop is the first after three straight cycles of increasing opportunity.

The 2011 spring cycle saw the chance to move into or up in the petty officer ranks at 18 percent, as advancement and re-enlistment bogged down in the last days of the nearly decadelong drawdown. That chance rose to 20 percent in the fall of 2011 before skyrocketing to 31 percent last spring.

This year’s opportunity is still well above the 23.76 percent average overall advancement over the past 10 years, according to Navy data.